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Wednesday, September 18, 2019

MEDUZOT / JELLYFISH (2007)

Inexplicably well-reviewed/Cannes Camera D’Or award-winning Israeli film from married writer/directors Etgar Kerey & Shira Geffen offers half-baked magical realism in telling its tale of three modern women in crisis mode: a neurotic newlywed; Filipino caretaker/nurse away from home & family; unfulfilled intellectual-type grimly functioning as banquet hall waitress. Plus more women with crises of their own for them to bump up against, using bad decisions & missed connections to move things along. Top encounter happening between a lost pixie girl, mysteriously showing up on the beach without guardian (or past?), silent & stubbornly clinging to our waitress until she sparks a panic by disappearing after being ‘conveniently’ left on her own. The film empty enough so you can read anything you like into it between its two standout moments: an hilarious avant-garde production of HAMLET (the caretaker’s employer is a cast member) and from Gera Sandler, the one rounded character in here as the newlywed’s patient, ultra-supportive husband. Apparently shot on 35mm but looking washed out, much like the lives on display. No doubt the point, but frankly, it’s hard to care.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Go old-school women’s crisis with Joe Mankiewicz’s witty LETTER TO THREE WIVES/’49.

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